They now have six months to whittle down over a hundred books to a longlist of just twelve titles - much fewer than in previous years - with the shortlist of six following in September. The winner will be announced at a ceremony on October 16th.

Other previous winners with books out this year include Graham Swift (Tomorrow) and Pat Barker (Life Class). Barker won the prize for The Ghost Road in 1995, the third book in her Regenerationtrilogy (perhaps there was a degree of recognition that the first book in the trilogy shouldn't have been overlooked). I wonder if her namesake Nicola Barker will achieve some recognition with her latest novel Darkmans which, at a pinch, might also be considered the third of a trio (following Wide Open and Behindlings) - assuming her work isn't too weird to register on the judges' radar.

Last, but clearly not least, JM Coetzee (Diary of a Bad Year) and Salman Rushdie (Parallelville) both have novels slated for later in the year, although the publication date for Rushdie's book seems to have been pushed back to December - too late for this year's prize? (The cut-off point is normally the end of September.)